Yun Jinnian was startled.
"Stay in the carriage, I’ll see what’s happening!" Chu Yu said hastily.
Yun Jinnian nodded, "Be careful, and call Tianci and the others to come back!"
"Um!" Chu Yu responded and got off the carriage.
He then saw a woman covered in injuries, with disheveled hair, stumbling toward them while screaming, "Help, save me!"
Behind her, about a dozen men resembling family retainers were chasing her with sticks and clubs.
"Stop, you little wench, stop right there!"
The woman was in a sorry state. Upon seeing Chu Yu and his party, she knelt down with a plop, "Please, I beg you, save me!"
Han Tianci looked on dumbfounded.
Thinking of what Yun Jinnian had once experienced, he was rather sympathetic toward the weak and hurriedly asked, "What’s wrong with you?"
The woman hadn’t yet finished speaking when one of the men chasing her spoke up, "Don’t meddle in others’ business!"
Han Tianci looked at them; they all had a fierce and sinister appearance, clearly not good people.
Chu Yu walked up slowly, glanced at the woman, then looked at the dozen men and spoke in a deep voice, "Who are you all?"
The leader of the men, looking at Chu Yu’s brocade clothes and the numerous guards around him, suddenly felt less confident, "She is a runaway slave. We are following our master’s orders to bring her back!"
"No, no, I am not a runaway slave; I am no slave. I don’t have a servitude contract, they’re lying, and I’m not a fugitive!" Shi Jiayu said as she crawled toward Chu Yu, "Young master, I beg you, save me, I’m not a runaway slave, I’m not!"
Chu Yu was too lazy to deal with these troubles initially.
Yun Jinnian got off the carriage and slowly walked over, standing beside Chu Yu, "If we can, let’s help her!"
At these words, Shi Jiayu immediately crawled toward Yun Jinnian, "Young master, help me, help me, I’m not a runaway slave. Their master deceived me into marriage, killed my parents, occupied my family property, and now wants to kill me, my maid and nursemaid risked their lives to help me escape, young master, please save me, I cannot be taken back by them!"
Yun Jinnian let out a deep sigh and looked at Chu Yu, "Let’s help her!"
Chu Yu nodded slightly and said to the dozen men, "Go back and tell your master, if what she says is true, I won’t spare him, and if there’s a single false word in her story, I won’t spare her either!"
The dozen men looked at each other and ran off quickly.
Yun Jinnian then stepped forward to help the woman up, "Stand up, I will have the maid clean you up and check your wounds!"
Yun Jinnian’s hands were delicate and soft, and Shi Jiayu immediately understood that the young master in front of her was not a man, but a woman.
And she was disguised as a man for a reason.
Yun Jinnian nodded and called Hemei and Henuan over to help, leading Shi Jiayu onto the carriage and fetching water to clean her wounds.
"There’s a drought, and we don’t have much water, so we need to use it sparingly, please make do!"
Shi Jiayu quickly shook her head, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the gentle and stunningly beautiful Yun Jinnian, "You saving me is already a great fortune for me!"
Yun Jinnian cautiously undressed Shi Jiayu, only to discover that her injuries were very severe, with some wounds exposing bone, yet she had been enduring the pain all along.
"Is everything you said true?" Yun Jinnian asked as she cleaned Shi Jiayu’s wounds.
"It’s completely true, I dare not lie in the slightest!" Shi Jiayu replied, tears uncontrollably falling.
Yun Jinnian paused in her movement, "Then later you must tell us everything, without hiding a single detail. Whether we can help you depends on you!"